Sarcoma Centers
Dr. Richard Gorlick: When diagnosed with a sarcoma, I think it is critically important that you're treated in a center that has significant expertise in dealing with sarcomas. Sarcomas are rare cancers, and it is critcially important that the team treating you has experience and expertise in all aspects of the care of a sarcoma patient. This includes its diagnoses, its staging, and its multi-disciplinary treatment.
Critical in defining a sarcoma center is multi-disciplinary excellence in all of the fields of relevance to sarcoma therapy. This includes pathology and radiology involved in the diagnosis and staging. It includes the surgeons, the radiation oncologist and the oncologist involved in designing the chemotherapy treatment plan. I think those groups working together in a multi-disciplinary manner is what defines a sarcoma center and is critical to the succesful management of these cancers.